


Stuck in a Lift

by theoncomingscarlettstorm



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 12:12:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12840918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoncomingscarlettstorm/pseuds/theoncomingscarlettstorm
Summary: Dan is in Manchester for a case when he gets stuck in the hotel's lift with handsome stranger.____Dan's a lawyer, Phil's in video production, they've never met until now.





	Stuck in a Lift

Dan lugged up his suitcase from the taxi’s boot. He really hated these business trips. When he signed on to this law firm, he was told that the farthest he’d have to travel was a town or two over. Now, six months later and on his third trip, he was in Manchester. Dan likes Manchester, it’s a good city, but he went to college there which was the worst experience of his life, maybe save from this job, and now he generally associates the city with those memories.

In short, he was a bit grumpy.

At least the hotel he was staying at was nice. It had a wide entrance for cars to go through in a circle and the receptionist was kind even though there was a mixup and he was an hour early. She directed him to the meeting rooms, allowing him to use an empty one to work on his case until his room was ready.

He supposed this was a good thing, more prep time in a quiet space, but there was one problem: Dan hated law. He had since he first started uni, but as he had no other career callings (except maybe acting, but that wasn't plausable), he stuck with it. Luckily he had learned to be good at it, or at least look like he was good at it. He’d gotten this job, and they let him handle a case. It had been between a family that was sueing each other over their recently deceased, wealthy uncle’s will. He’d lost the case.

This was his second case and one he hoped would pass by faster than the first one. It was a custody battle between divorcing parents over their six year old daughter. He knew he wouldn’t win this one, he was representing the mother, but neither would the father. Having read through the case, it was obviously that both parents were unfit and the daughter would probably go to live with her aunt. 

Dan couldn’t exactly say no after the failure of the last one, so he opened his files on the wooden table of the meeting room and started going over his argument, making sure he’d memorised all of it.

Two hours and a headache later, he went to retrieve his key card of his room. It was only eight o’clock, but as he was meeting with his client the next day, he figured a bit of extra sleep could do him well. He thanked the receptionist, a different person now, and walked toward the elevator. The room was on the sixth floor, and Dan wasn’t in the in the mood for exercise on a good day. When he turned round the corner where the lifts were, he fell flat on his ass, something having knocked into him.

“Sorry!” A voice rang out. Dan shook his head and accept the offer of a hand. Once he was stood up and got his senses back in order, he found that the hand belonged to a rather attractive male in the hotel’s uniform--a open red cardigan paired with brown khaki pants that fit him quite nicely. The man had jet black hair and blue eyes with specks of other colors. He had a worried look on his face.

Dan realized he was still holding his hand and jerked away.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t see you, and I was a bit distracted and--” he held out the side of his cardigan. “I forgot my badge.” He finished with a grim look. Dan had no choice but to smile.

“Don’t worry about it, I should have been paying better attention, too. It’s okay,” 

“Sorry, again,” They stood there for a bit in awkward silence.

“Your badge?” Dan asked, pointing to his chest.

“Oh! Right, excuse me,” The boy ran towards the front desk. Dan chuckled behind him, walking toward the lift. There were two, one with an out of order sign on it. He pressed the up button on the working one and waited, humming under his breath. The boy came rushing back, slightly pink in the cheeks, with a unnamed badge affixed to his shirt. He let out a breath and pushed the up button, even though it was already lit.

They stood next to each other in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time. Did lifts usually take this long?

The doors opened up at last and they walked in, both managing to bump their heads on the doorframe made for short people. Dan laughed lightly as he rubbed his head and the hotel employee muttered “tall people problems” with a smile.

Dan pressed his button and the pretty boy clicked his (also floor eight) and the fell into the awkward lift silence as the doors closed.

The elevator jolted up a bit with surprising forcefulness that made both occupants grab onto the rails. Hands pressed together. Not that Dan noticed of course. 

To coincide with Dan's awful luck in social situations, the lift appeared to be stuck.

“Uhm,” The employee said nervously, patting his pockets. “I don’t have my key.” Dan shrugged his shoulders.

“Ah, no key and a forgotten, unnamed badge. That’s not concerning at all,” he muttered, though he was pretty sure the man heard him anyways.

Dan reached over and pressed the emergency button then sank down the elevator wall to sit. Because his luck so terrible, this wasn’t the first time he’d been in a lift, and he knew how long it took to actually get out of one. The people had to process the button, then approval, then figuring out what’s wrong, then equipment, and then you got out.

“Uh, I’m Phil.” The employee stated, sitting down on the other side of the lift. Dan told him his own name. “I’m just a temp here, which is why my badge doesn’t have a name.”

“Oh, well, I’m Dan,” He responded. More awkward silence followed. “So...”

“So,”

“A temp you said?” The man nodded.

“I do video production normally, but in between jobs I take different temp positions, mostly secretary stuff. I like to keep busy.” Video production was cool, and Dan conveyed that much. He’d actually taken an elective on it once, but he could take anymore because they didn’t exactly line up with his major. “What about you?” Phil asked.

“I’m a lawyer, which is why I’m in Manchester.”

“Oh, law, that sounds fun,”

“Not the word I’d use, but…” Dan trailed off. Phil crinkled his brow and shifted closer to Dan.

“Do you not like it?” Dan shrugged his shoulders again.

“I mean, there’s certain aspects I like about it, it gave me a chance to study a bit of philosophy, which was cool. But for the most part…”Dan trailed off again. He wasn’t sure he wanted to complain about his career choice problems to some guy he met five minutes ago.

“You don’t have to stick with it,” Phil said, looking straight into Dan’s eyes. Normally he’d look away under such a gaze, but Dan found himself staring right back into those multi colored eyes. “What’d you mean?”

“I mean, my bachelor's is in English Language, which, don’t get me wrong, is really interesting, but I wanted to do something more. And it was a bit touch and go for a while, but I made it work.”

Dan didn’t know what to say imminently. He was mildly shocked by the sincerity of the stranger, but mostly he didn’t know how to respond. He’s thought law was it for him, despite his feelings towards it.

“Thanks for the advice, lift man,” He said. When in doubt, sarcasm is the best way. It got Phil to laugh anyways, a bubbly sound that made Dan grin.

“No problem.” There was another silence, but this one comfortable. Dan, however, wanted to break it still so he could learn more about Phil. He pulled out his phone and tapped his way to music.

“You listen to Muse?” He asked. Phil nodded excitedly.

“Yeah! Not as much as I used to, but they’ll always hold a special place because of how obsessed with them I was when I was a bit younger.” Dan laughed and presses shuffle on “Black Holes and Revelations”.

They talked for a while longer. Phil mentioned his love of Final Fantasy and Pokemon, Dan brought up his favorite horror movies, which led Phil to talk about Stephen King and other authors. They talked about Phil’s latest work, a web miniseries an old friend asked for help with and Dan told Phil vaguely about the case he was working on.

Their personalities seemed to bounce off of each other well. They talked smoothly and silence stopped being awkward.

About an hour later, the lift started to working just enough to get them from in between floors, thanks to maintenance. As it turned out, the ‘out-of-order’ sign Dan saw earlier was places on the wrong lift.

“So,” He said, not really wanting to say goodbye to the stranger that was becoming less so.

Phil cracked a smile that reached Dan’s chest. “So,”

“Would you, uh, maybe want to, uhm,” Dan was definitly blushing.

“How about coffee?” Dan smiled, thankful that Phil got where he was going.

“Are you doing anything Sunday?”

“10 o’clock? There’s a cafe on Tib Street we could go to?”

“Works for me,” Phil smiled even brighter. “It’s a date.”

They exchanged phone numbers while Dan looked back and forth between the oceans of Phil’s eyes and the tips of Dan’s shoes.

He walked to his room with a new air in his chest, excited to see the dark haired lift man again.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one shot I wrote a couple months back and forgot about! I hope you enjoyed! If you want to, you can check out my tumblr [here](http://bafflingdan.tumblr.com/). As always, I'll be replying to comments below and I'll talk to you next time when I update "Not Meant To Be"!


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